Effect of ethanol on the oxidation of atrazine in the remediation of contaminated soil

The oxidation of an atrazine solution obtained from a flushing treatment of a contaminated soil was investigated. Experimental tests were performed on an artificially contaminated standard soil. Atrazine was removed from the soil by flushing with an aqueous solution at 5% vol. of ethanol. Oxidative Fenton-type treatment on the extracted solution were then performed in order to transform atrazine into its by-products. The influence of different concentration of ethanol on atrazine oxidation was studied. Results show that the oxidative treatment are strongly affected by the ethanol residual amount. The degradation mechanism of atrazine during oxidation with Fenton’s reagent in the presence of ethanol was also investigated